micd95
Grommet
Posts: 20
Likes: 15
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Post by micd95 on Nov 20, 2019 8:17:23 GMT -5
Do we have any Band fans here? I've been on a huge kick since February.
Their first two albums are brilliant, and I'm a big fan of the other albums up to '76 as well.
Great singers, songwriting, and musicianship. Especially Garth Hudson's organ/piano/synth work. Mesmerising! Van Dyke Parks says Hudson is one of only two geniuses he met in the music business (the other being Harry Nilsson) and it's easy to see why.
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Post by Mikie on Nov 20, 2019 12:31:08 GMT -5
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Post by lonelysummer on Dec 3, 2019 1:43:39 GMT -5
This may be blasphemous to some, but I used to have a copy of Music From Big Pink, and I never loved it all that much. I like Bob's version of Tears or Rage a lot more. The Band, the second album, is a favorite - I don't think there's a weak track on it, and some of Richard Manuel's vocals there just haunt me. After that, I tend to disagree with the critics, who write off everything after the first two albums. Stage Fright is a strong album, can't understand why they don't like it - Time to Kill, W.S. Walcott Medicine Show, The Shape I'm In, the title cut - what's not to like? I even like Islands - Right As Rain has another great vocal from Richard; The Saga of Pepote Rouge is a great story song. Christmas Must Be Tonight is in my top 10 Xmas songs ever. I'm glad Dylan hired them to back him up - without that, I might not have ever discovered them.
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Post by jk on Feb 21, 2020 18:06:00 GMT -5
Do we have any Band fans here? I've been on a huge kick since February. Their first two albums are brilliant, and I'm a big fan of the other albums up to '76 as well. Great singers, songwriting, and musicianship. Especially Garth Hudson's organ/piano/synth work. Mesmerising! Van Dyke Parks says Hudson is one of only two geniuses he met in the music business (the other being Harry Nilsson) and it's easy to see why. I'm a big fan of the first three, Rock of Ages and NL-SC. Hudson did some sterling work sweetening that last-named album. Nail on the head, VDP. This is such a cool version of "Don't Do It":
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Post by jk on Mar 3, 2020 7:27:31 GMT -5
It's possible fans were disappointed by the lack of catch-as-catch-can vocals on Stage Fright that were all over the first two albums. Most of SF is single-voice stuff. The one glaring exception (correct me if I'm talking cr@p) is the rather frightening closer. "The Rumor" appropriately enough has more of the "conversational" style of the first two albums. (Levon's three concluding thuds seem to be saying, "Disaster ahead!") Don't get me wrong--I love Stage Fright! They were just in a different place when they wrote and recorded it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Fright_(album)
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Post by lonelysummer on Mar 4, 2020 2:18:18 GMT -5
It's possible fans were disappointed by the lack of catch-as-catch-can vocals on Stage Fright that were all over the first two albums. Most of SF is single-voice stuff. The one glaring exception (correct me if I'm talking cr@p) is the rather frightening closer. "The Rumor" appropriately enough has more of the "conversational" style of the first two albums. (Levon's three concluding thuds seem to be saying, "Disaster ahead!") Don't get me wrong--I love Stage Fright! They were just in a different place when they wrote and recorded it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Fright_(album) i just find it funny how The Band are always praised by critics and fans for the first two albums, and then everything after those is dismissed. Sheesh, that's not much of a career, two strong albums and half a dozen misfires. Actually, I find the biggest weakness in their comparatively small catalog (compared to say, the Beach Boys or the Kinks) is the overabundance of live albums. They gave us Rock of Ages in 1972, then 2 years later, they had a side and a half to themselves on Before The Flood; another four years and we got The Last Waltz. That's a lot of live recordings IMHO for a relatively small catalog - 6 studio albums, 7 if you count Moondog Matinee, 8 if you count the side of new material on Last Waltz. Of course, i'm leaving out the 3 albums they did post-Robbie. I only have one of those, haven't listened to it in a long time.
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Post by jk on Jun 16, 2020 16:56:25 GMT -5
From their 1968 debut as The Band, this must be one of the greatest and most audacious album openers ever:
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Post by jk on Dec 16, 2020 17:03:06 GMT -5
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Post by John Manning on Dec 20, 2020 21:56:22 GMT -5
Should mention of course that Blondie Chaplin has a good association with The Band, having guested on their High on the Hog album and having played on several occasions with Rick Danko.
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Post by E on Dec 21, 2020 4:58:28 GMT -5
i just find it funny how The Band are always praised by critics and fans for the first two albums, and then everything after those is dismissed. Sheesh, that's not much of a career, two strong albums and half a dozen misfires. Actually, I find the biggest weakness in their comparatively small catalog (compared to say, the Beach Boys or the Kinks) is the overabundance of live albums. They gave us Rock of Ages in 1972, then 2 years later, they had a side and a half to themselves on Before The Flood; another four years and we got The Last Waltz. That's a lot of live recordings IMHO for a relatively small catalog - 6 studio albums, 7 if you count Moondog Matinee, 8 if you count the side of new material on Last Waltz. Of course, i'm leaving out the 3 albums they did post-Robbie. I only have one of those, haven't listened to it in a long time. It's the law of diminishing returns with those last three albums, but I really enjoy the first one. You can get (or maybe could get) a compilation with tracks from all three.
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Post by jk on Dec 30, 2020 15:19:10 GMT -5
In his book about The Band, Barney Hoskyns writes that the call-and-response duet between Richard and Levon in the final verse of "Whispering Pines" "must rate as one of the saddest and loveliest passages of music in the history of rock": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_Pines_(The_Band_song)
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Post by jk on Aug 9, 2023 16:31:31 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Aug 15, 2023 15:43:38 GMT -5
"The Weight" was the first song I heard by The Band, here in a wonderful rendition in the "Playing for Change" series:
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